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	Abuse Claims Thrived: Lawyer By Trevor Pritchard Standard-Freeholder February 27, 2009 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1454237 Local News Home News Local News Abuse claims thrived: lawyer Abuse claims thrived: lawyer Posted By TREVOR PRITCHARD, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER Posted 51 mins ago An "era of ignorance" allowed rumours to spread throughout Cornwall that a clan of pedophiles was sexually abusing children, a church lawyer argued Thursday. David Sherriff-Scott told the Cornwall Public Inquiry there was no evidence to suggest Cornwall's rate of historical sexual abuse was any different from other communities in Ontario or Canada. "What was different, however, was how certain people in the media, as well as the public, reacted to what unfolded in an era that was an era of ignorance of the issues," he said. Yesterday was the fourth day of submissions at the inquiry, which is examining how institutions like the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese responded to sexual abuse allegations. Submissions wrap up today. In 1992, former altar boy David Silmser came forward alleging he had been abused in the 1960s and 1970s by a local priest. The church paid Silmser $32,000, but the deal contained an illegal clause inserted by the priest's lawyer that prevented Silmser from pursuing any criminal charges. When Silmser's allegations and the payout hit the media, the diocese vowed it didn't know the clause was in the contract. But over the 1990s, theories spread that diocesan officials were actually part of a widespread conspiracy involving police and the courts to cover up an alleged pedophile clan. Cornwall's residents were polarized, either wholeheartedly believing the clan story or denying it outright, said Sherriff-Scott. So too were the local media, which descended into "rumour and conjecture," he said. Ultimately, the public was "ill-equipped" to properly understand what was going on, said Sherriff- Scott. "The result was that many innocent people were badly harmed. Real victims were badly harmed, and the entire community's self-image was badly damaged," he said. Although a four-year investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police resulted in more than 100 charges against 15 men, police never uncovered evidence of an organized clan. Sherriff-Scott placed the blame for the clan theory upon Perry Dunlop - a former Cornwall police officer who, in 1993, had turned over Silmser's allegations to the Children's Aid Society. For his actions, Dunlop was charged under the Police Service Act. He was later exonerated. "Mr. Dunlop became convinced that he was being scapegoated, bullied, harassed and isolated," said Sherriff-Scott. "In the ensuing storm, he simply fell apart." Dunlop began conducting his own off-hours investigations into sexual abuse allegations. He eventually met Ron Leroux, an alleged abuse victim who claimed he'd seen a number of prominent local men ritually assault young boys decades earlier. Dunlop took that information, said Sherriff-Scott, and launched a "dysfunctional and bizarre" investigation that "did not have objectivity as its hallmark." "That allowed Mr. Leroux . . . to dominate the agenda, and resulted in the publication and dissemination of the many lies that he told," said Sherriff-Scott. "And I suggest that was the epicentre of what generated the scandal in the city." Leroux recanted significant parts of his story when he took the inquiry's stand in 2007. Sherriff-Scott also accused former MPP Garry Guzzo of using his reputation as a former judge and lawyer to "enhance the credibility" of the clan rumours. Guzzo was a passionate advocate for the inquiry, and had once threatened to reveal the names of alleged abusers on the floor of Queen's Park. But Sherriff-Scott scolded Guzzo for not having the evidence to back up his claims, and said he "should have known better." "I suggest he fastened on to this issue for his own electoral pretension, and what he did amounts to a cynical display of the disregard for the interests of this community," Sherriff-Scott said. John Callaghan, an attorney for the Cornwall police, urged inquiry commissioner Normand Glaude to not only state the clan allegations were false, but to specifically identify the people who spread the falsehoods. "It's important because the conspiracy theorists will never die," he said. "Long after you leave town the bloggers, the gossip hounds, will continue to gather behind some grassy knoll in Cornwall." Callaghan said that for 15 years, local police officers "quietly endured" the allegations that they intentionally botched investigations, hoping one day the truth would come out. "These people and their families deserve no less, as do the families of Cornwall," he said.
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